Walking A Tightrope Over The Ohio River(pg. 13)

     I reached up to grab the cable and right off the bat I almost fell as I caught myself and pulled myself up to the cable which was like a tightly strung bowstring, and I thought what am I doing, surely these local boys knew this is an impossible feat, and they must have seen a million attempts here in their own town, but I can't quit, I have my pride to keep, and that means more to me than a plunge to my death. 

     I managed to make twenty feet between me and the start and I thought there are no rules for a rest as long as I don't move away from the cables. I looked up and saw the locals gawking down at me and yelling at me, "you'll never make it, it isn't worth killing yourself!" I trudged on without any retort toward the maddening crowd assembled. 

     I made one critical error, I wore no leather gloves, and my hands were being gripped and squeezed like I was shaking hands each time with a pair of vise-grips, this hurt like Hell, and I looked up and slowly inched my way to the first landing beam, but the sun was setting right in my eyes, I was up against every odds imaginable, but I kept my composure and slowly inched on, once I messed up and glanced at the river below and I was immediately in a  full set of continuous vertigo where the cable is moving faster than the water below, again I almost lost my grip due to the dizziness this carelessness produced. I was losing sunlight but at least the heat was subsiding substantially, and sweat was pouring out of my body like a blown radiator in the middle of the desert and each grip before the other I had to swipe my shorts to dry the sweat  from each palm, this wasn't what I signed up for and I started to say a prayer, but God doesn't come to the aid of fools.   

     I made progress, and almost knew now I could make it until my legs started bowing and swaying and becoming like a folding tent, my knees were shaking so bad I had to rest about ten minutes and time was becoming an issue and I was just about halfway there too, and wondered too if I had the strength to even pull myself back to safety if I decided to quit. 

     I made another error and that was not bringing a water bottle, my beat-up body was so badly dehydrated I had salt coming out of my skin and shirt but this aided me because my skin was now dry as a bone and I didn't have to worry about losing my grip.

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